Category Archives: Album Reviews

There are just death metal bands and there’s DYING FETUS. I still vividly remember listening to DYING FETUS‘s, ‘Killing On Adrenaline‘ for the first time years later after it came out and without missing a beat in utter awe, I went, “How on earth can someone pull that shit off!?“. Fast forward to 2017, after 19 years and six more impaling records , I have failed to stumble upon any satisfactory answers to satiate my thirst. I guess it should be left that way and let music speak for itself. Hailing from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, DYING FETUS has been a constant reckoning brute force ripping out guts and entrails of the listener since 1991. Five years after, ‘Reign Supreme‘, here we are ready for DYING FETUS to dismember our guts into a putrefying pool of gore, as they disgorge yet another sadistic album, ‘Wrong One To Fuck With‘.

‘Wrong One To Fuck With‘ is the eight in line DYING FETUS has come up with and is all set for a release on June 23rd, 2017 out via Relapse Records. Continue reading →

Eighteen Visions formed in Orange County, California in 1995. Despite being half the age of the genre’s most legendary architects, Eighteen Visions is literally in the history book of heavy metal, hard rock, and post-modern heavy music. The band were declared part of “The Future of Metal” by Revolver Magazine during their meteoric rise from proto-deathcore indie band, nurtured by the DIY scene, to major label “next big thing” in active rock. Their debut album ‘Yesterday Is Time Killed’ released in 1999 via Cedargate Records. Eighteen Visions went on to record release an album every year up to 2002’s ‘Vanity’ which was their debut on ‘Trustkill’. Eighteen Visions has inspired various bands, one of which is Motionless In White who named themselves after a track with the same name from the band’s 2001 release ‘The Best Of’. The band continued pumping out amazing records. The next would come in 2002 titled ‘Vanity’ and then quickly moved on to release in my eyes one of their best albums ‘Obsession’ in 2004. The album has a lyric that has stuck with me since its release and is one of the best single verses ever. It comes from the track “Lost In A Dream” saying “Locked in a room, Where all my dreams come true, Scrape my mind off of the walls. Painted pretty blue.” The next album would become Eighteen Visions last album for the next 11 years. The self-titled album released in 2016. Many fans thought this would be the last they would hear from the band they loved so much. Bassist Mike Morris announced on Myspace in 2007, “After several years of touring and quite a few album releases we have decided that it is time to go our separate ways. We have been a band for a very long time and feel good about everything we were able to accomplish. At this point in our lives and our careers we feel its time to move on to something fresh and new. Whether it be music, touring or just being at home to live and enjoy life.” Everything came to a standstill for 18V fans for over a decade. Unbeknownst to the public, the band nearly reunited once before, quietly working on new material in 2012. The process that led to their eventual and perhaps inevitable full reunion in 2017 was as organic as it was trans-formative, as the core members reassembled to put their collective passion back on the record, literally and figuratively. Unfortunately bassist Mick Morris passed away on June 3, 2013 in his sleep due to a pre-existing heart condition. It’s sad that he isn’t a part of this new lineup but the band and its core members: James Hart – lead vocals, Keith Barney – lead guitar, backing vocals, and Trevor Friedrich – drums are currently the lineup for the reunited Eighteen Visions. The new album ‘XVIII‘ was made at home in Orange County, with U.K. transplant and multi-instrumentalist producer Mick Kenney at the helm. The album released on June 2, 2017. It is the first album since 2002’s Vanity to feature movie quotes at the beginning of some songs. It is an amazing comeback from a band that was truly missed in both the genre and music as a whole. Continue reading →

Black metal band Aethere has been under the radar for quite some time but their latest album ‘Adrift’ is going to make a change to that. They formed in 2009 when drummer Josh Slater and former guitarist Garrett Wasson started playing together and recorded a demo with 3 songs on it. Aethere has not been sitting still, they have been touring a lot. If you are from Northern Carolina and you attent local shows you may have already seen this masterpiece of a band perform live. After this they began making new music such as their debut album ‘Wave Existence’. The track ”Oblivion” got released and got 20.000 views just under a month from it’s release date. This album got followed up by the EP ‘Demons’ (2012) that got produced by Bob Swanson. After creating new music the band decided to tour again and play at the local shows. Some time after they decided to release the EP ‘Past And Present’ that got released in 2014. After playing on huge death metal festivals with bands such as Cattle Decapitation, Psycroptic and Fallujah the band finally got the attention it deserved. People started to discover the band and noticed the wide varied of influences Aethere has. This year, 28th of April they came back to release yet another great album called ‘Adrift’ via Tragic Hero Records.

–Antidote is part of the first wave of American hardcore, in 1983 they released the iconic ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’, there are only 1.000 copies of this record so if you have one you should consider yourself lucky. Just 3 years later they stopped being a band but 2 years later they reunited as a full blown hardcore band that consists of vocalist Drew Stone, guitarist Robb Nunzio, bassist Tristan Michael and drummer Rea Lem. About 3 years later, 1991 to be exact, they released their second album which is called ‘Viva Los Pendejos’ Together they make the most noticeble hardcore band this world has seen. After such a song time, and I mean a really long time, they have yet again reunited to create their new compilation album ‘The Rock Years’ that will get released on the 9th of June via Old School Metal Records. If you liked the widely known ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’ record you will for sure enjoy this compilation album because it has those early hardcore vibes we are all looking for.

It seems CKY have a knack for delivering raw, authentic material with every release. Since the early days of their skate-punk upbringing, they have continued to improve and impress with their upcoming album ‘The Phoenix’, set for release June 16, being no exception. CKY have gained quite a bit of notoriety with musical contributions to the CKY video series, as well as the TV show Jackass, launching their musical ventures to new heights. They’ve grown to be known for their groove-ridden, octave-driven sound that any CKY (or Jackass) fan will immediately recognize. Continue reading →

Just this past Friday, the New York trio of Mutoid Man released their second full length record ‘War Moans’ to shred the faces off of the public. The record was released via Sargent House. It was mixed by Kurt Ballou of Converge and mastered by Brad Boatright. This band has been on my radar since releasing their masterful debut EP in 2013 titled ‘Helium Head’. The technicality, tenaciousness, and epic riffage of Mutoid Man immediately caught my attention. The constant onslaught of mind-boggling song compositions still stand out as much as the first time I heard them. The band continued to grow to be one of my favorite rock bands with their follow up (also their first full length record), ‘Bleeder’. Stephen Brodsky (Cave In) and Ben Koller (Converge) manage to combine their other band’s sounds along with Nick Cageao’s killer bass tone to create something unlike anything else you will here anywhere else. If you haven’t heard about this band, you will soon. You can stream the album below and then buy it here after having your face melted off. Continue reading →

Falling In Reverse was formed in 2008, the band was founded by former Escape The Fate lead singer, Ronnie Radke. Since then, the group has produced 3 albums such as ‘The Drug in Me is You’ in 2011, ‘Fashionably Late’ in 2013, and ‘Just Like You’ in 2015. All of the bands albums have been released via Epitaph Records. Fans flock to see Falling In Reverse perform live and they can often be seen gracing the stage at the Vans Warped tour as they have played the festival in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016 and will be on the lineup again this year. Continue reading →

Entrails are a Swedish death metal band that was formed in 1991. With dreams to follow in the scene around Stockholm they were unsuccessful in recording any satisfactory sessions and in 1994, half the band decided to move onto other things. Jimmy Lundqvist (Guitar) kept writing until 1998 when even he decided to hang it up. Fast forward to 2008, when Entrails was resurrected. Lundqvist dug up some old recordings and decided they needed to be released through modern technology. And with that, the first ever Entrails demos were finally recorded, ‘Reborn’ and ‘Human Decay’. Jocke Svensson took the helm at vocals in 2009. Following those two demos, they were signed to German label FDA Rekotz. Then Entrails released their debut album ‘Tales From The Morgue’ in 2010. The album featured tracks from both previous demos. Shortly after this release, the band welcomed Adde Mitroulis as their drummer at the time. Their follow up effort was in 2011 with ‘The Tomb Awaits’, which featured the rest of the songs from the demos along with a few older tracks and some new material. That winter they started working on a new deal with several record labels and ended with signing to Metal Blade Records in 2012. They started work in the fall of 2012 on their Metal Blade debut and released ‘Raging Death’ in 2013. This release also marks the departure of Mathias Nilsson with Pontus Samuelsson replacing him on guitar. A new song was written and released on 7″, in early 2014, called ‘Berzerk‘. The B-side was a cover of Swedish heavy metal legends Heavy Load. Also in 2014, they released their old demos under ‘Resurrected From The Grave-Demo Collection‘. 2015 saw the release of their 2nd full length under Metal Blade in ‘Obliteration’. After a few shows in 2015, Jocke Svensson (Vocals) and Adde Mitroulis (Drums) both parted ways with the band, on good terms, and were replaced by Tommy Carlsson (Bass/Vocals) and Martin Michaelsson (Drums). In 2016, they began work on their most recent effort ‘World Inferno’ and will be released June 16th, 2017 via Metal Blade Records. Continue reading →

Storming in back to business and stirring up the broth yet again, MUNICIPAL WASTE is back and ready to crush your skull against their wall of sound with full force like a German tank missile. Richmond, Virginia crossover thrash young bloods MUNICIPAL WASTE hits back after a five year gap with their latest and brand new record, ‘Slime And Punishment‘. It’s been well over a decade now and it won’t be wrong to bestow the moniker of ‘crossover kings’ to MUNICIPAL WASTE, as it’s what evidently time and again they’ve proved so far down their short and marvellous career so far. Perfectly matured and well executed punk and thrash metal riffs, combining hardcore elements, they have really upped the ante in their own genre, which is a laudable thing. Clocking in just shy of 30 minutes, and loaded with a blitkrieg of 14 tracks, MUNICIPAL WASTE takes no shit and proves yet again that this isn’t for the weak hearted. If you’re looking for anything short of fast, gritty and uncompromising thrash violence then you better look away. ‘Slime and Punishment‘ was recorded by the band themselves and sent to Bill Metoyer (known for his work with SLAYER, W.A.S.P., LIZZY BORDEN and DARK ANGEL) in Hollywood, CA to be professionally mixed. The album is not so far away from it’s release date and the flood gates would open on June 23rd, 2017, out via Nuclear Blast Records. Continue reading →

Rendered Helpless is a brutal slamming death metal band from Christchurch, New Zealand. It’s a 1 man side project created by Alexander Paul. He does everything by himself besides the drums because those are programmed. He is the man behind the brutal vocals and the nasty guitar riffs. Alexander’s main band is Organectomy which he is the vocalist for. First his focus was on that band but after some time he came back to Rendered Helpless and gave birth to the filthiest album mankind has even known that goes by the name ‘Entities Of Transdimensional Emergence’, available on SLAMWORLDWIDE and on their bandcamp page. The main idea behind this side project was to practise vocals and instruments but after this album got released it became much more. Before making this album he released a few singles via soundcloud and some demos and compilations as well. Just last year he created his debut album‘Unstoppable Parasites’ which will grab you by your throat and squeeze till it implodes. I’m glad he decided to focus on Rendered Helpless because this is for sure one of my favorites slam releases of this year!